Statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Chhattrapati Shivaji, BR Ambedkar shifted within Parliament; Congress says ‘atrocious’.

Congress slammed the move to shift the statues of Gandhi, Ambedkar and Shivaji within the Parliament premises. The Congress party attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji and others were relocated within the premises of the Parliament. The statues were moved due to a landscaping exercise, part of a redevelopment project. Apart from Gandhi, Shivaji and Ambedkar, the statues of tribal leader Birsa Munda and warrior king Maharana Pratap have also been shifted to a lawn between old Parliament building and the Parliament library. All the statues in the Parliament campus are now in the same place. The Congress party slammed the move to relocate the statues of prominent leader, calling the project as “atrocious”. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X, “Statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar have just been removed from their places of prominence in front of the Parliament House. This is atrocious.” Congress’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera attacked the BJP and said that when voters from Maharashtra did not favour the party, the statues of Shivaji and Ambedkar were removed from their original place in Parliament. He further said that when BJP did not get a clean sweep in Gujarat, they moved the statue of Mahatma Gandhi from its original place in the Parliament. “Just think, if they had been given 400 seats, would they have spared the Constitution?” Khera said in a post in Hindi on X. Parliament redevelopment project underway. The redevelopment project in the Parliament to revamp the premises for the maiden session of the new elected MPs. The Parliament will sport a new look in June, with work underway to integrate the entire complex, comprising four different buildings. As part of the redevelopment of external areas, the statues of national icons, including those of Gandhi, Shivaji and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, were to be moved to a lawn near Gate No 5 of the old Parliament building, which has been named as Samvidhan Sadan. The statues were moved to create a great lawn in front of Gaja Dwar, which is used by the President and the Prime Minister to enter into the new Parliament building.